<H1> BTS Signs Up Partners</H1>By Cheryl Rosen and
Stefani C. O'Connor
<I>Fort Worth, Texas - </I>With Business Travel Solutions moving through its beta-test phase, Sabre Travel Information Network is signing up distribution partners and putting together financing to help bring the product to market.
In the past month, Sabre has inked a deal with IBM to co-develop a Lotus Notes version of BTS and to integrate it with IBM's NEDS expense reporting system; signed three travel agencies to distribute the product to corporate customers; and won endorsements and promotional support from Hilton, Marriott and Avis.
Sabre also has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make an initial public offering of its Class A common stock by year's end. The Sabre Group will use the financing to meet its own capital needs as well as to pursue "significant" acquisitions and alliances, it said.
In its new alliance, IBM will be playing three roles, all valuable to Sabre: as systems integrator, as distributor to its existing base of large corporate customers and as a customer in its own right. With an annual air volume of $300 million, IBM is the nation's largest purchaser of business travel.
Sabre BTS vice president and general manager Sam Gilliland noted that IBM's NEDS system has a client base of 650,000 users, including most of the Fortune 200 companies, "even though IBM hasn't marketed it very aggressively." He said a Lotus Notes version of BTS was "a large requirement from potential corporate customers."
Meanwhile, BTS' three agency partners-McCord Travel Management and Corporate Travel Consultants in the Chicago area, and QST Travel Group in Irvine, Calif.-plan to begin selling the automated booking- through-expense-reporting system to corporate customers before 1996 is out.
McCord president Bruce Black-whose agency sold $266 million worth of air tickets in 1995-said that with about 20 percent of his client base looking for an automated system, he chose Sabre based on its core competency in data retrieval and its long-term potential for survival.
"There aren't that many products available today," Black said. "So the real question for us became who are the most likely survivors in a development role, particularly at the booking source; and who could manage that process over a number of years and also have the wherewithal, financially and structurally, to make that product successful. I felt that Sabre is among the few perfectly positioned to do that."
But he also acknowledged that he remains unsure of the pricing model he will offer. "The costs for the agency in terms of time spent on each record is going to go down, with some of the work being shifted to the client, which should reduce our cost and increase our productivity," he noted. "So it's likely our clients will share in the savings."
Sharon Calvo, corporate marketing and communications director at Corporate Travel Consultants, predicted that 10 percent of CTC's client base would be on board within the next year, beginning with "high-end users, probably those over $3 million," and then moving to smaller accounts.
"Sabre BTS will enhance our ability to function as a strategic consultant through the entire corporate travel management process," Calvo said, "while clients will benefit from increased travel counselor productivity, reduced T&E costs, maximized agreements with preferred travel suppliers and traveler time savings."
CTC president Jane Batio sees travel technology as a potential new source of business for agencies rather than as a threat to their survival. "Clients want someone who's going to interface with them, find all their answers for them and tell them what kind of technology they should have-and even though they may do their own negotiating, let them know what's good and what's bad," she said. "They are really looking for service."
QST executive vice president Bob Dorman said that an integrated corporate travel system "has been a long time coming-and our customers have been waiting. Customers who have the right agency will see a shift of costs from the management fee line to the technology line-but ultimately, these systems will cut costs.